Red Rose start pre-season tour with victory

Lancashire started this year's pre-season tour off with a convincing 225 run victory over UAE Blues on Monday afternoon at the ICC Academy in Dubai.

Glen Chapple’s side, who won the toss and elected to bat first, opened with Haseeb Hameed (who was captaining Lancashire for the first time) and Karl Brown.

The pair got off a positive start with both batsmen hitting boundaries down the ground in the early exchange. Brown was the aggressor of the two and he started to take on the UAE bowlers after a solid start by the two Boltonians.

Brown went to his half century for 42 deliveries but was dismissed for 65 with Meiyappen taking his wicket, leaving Lancashire 116/1.

Rob Jones came to the crease but struggled to find his rhythm. The 22 year-old hit 19 and put a partnership worth 40 with Captain Hameed.

Hameed went to his half century from 62 deliveries and became more and more fluent as the innings progressed.

Jones was dismissed which brought Steven Croft to the crease and the former Lancashire Captain played aggressively from the start.

Hameed then retired at the second drinks break after 36 overs with the score 211/3. He finished on 85 not out from 82 balls including seven boundaries and a maximum.

That brought Clark to the crease and he and Croft continued to pick off the UAE bowlers. Croft raced to a half century off 38 balls and Clark joined him as he became the fourth Lancashire batsman to reach 50.

Clark’s half century came from just 36 deliveries as the pair put on a 100 run partnership in just 11 overs at the ICC Academy.

The Cumbrian all-rounder continued his attack on the hosts' bowling attack and went on to launch seven massive sixes (three of which went out of the ground) to go with 10 boundaries.

Croft was caught in the last over for 95 as Lancashire posted an impressive 395/4 from 50 overs.

In reply, it was Toby Lester and Jordan Clark who opened the bowling for the visitors.

Lester took two early wickets dismissing Fahad Nawaz and Hyder Shah to leave the hosts struggling on 30/2.

Wickets continued to tumble as Danny Lamb trapped Ur Rehman lbw before Chris Sanders took his first wicket for Lancashire as Qasim was caught behind by George Lavelle.

Spin was introduced in the form of Arron Lilley and Simon Kerrigan and the former had Tandon dismissed, well caught by Hameed at first slip.

The spin pair went for very few runs with Lilley taking 1/22 and Kerrigan 0/16 from nine overs for both bowlers.

Clark, Lester and Lamb all took wickets late in the day as UAE Blues were restricted to 170/9 from 50 overs at the ICC Academy.

Lancashire take on Surrey in a one-day clash at the ICC Academy tomorrow.

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